South Phoenix is on track to trade a sleepy, mostly vacant office park for a wall of servers and cooling units. Menlo Equities is moving ahead with plans to turn the Thistle Landing site in Ahwatukee into a major data center and technology campus, with roughly 1 million square feet of computing and research space across five two-story buildings on about 38 acres. The project includes an on-site power substation and a two-acre community park, and company materials say design and engineering are finished while permitting is underway. Menlo is aiming to deliver the powered shells first, with fully built data halls to follow, even as nearby residents question what that will mean for noise, water use and life next to a high-density tech hub.
According to The Arizona Republic, Menlo intends to redevelop the Thistle Landing Office Park at the southwest corner of 50th Street and Thistle Landing Drive into a mixed technology and data campus with office space for research and around 20 data halls. The outlet reports that the proposal has already gone before city planning officials and includes demolition of several existing buildings to clear the way for the new construction.
Menlo's digital-focused arm, Menlo Digital, has been steadily building a national roster of data center projects and lists Phoenix as one of its priority markets. The firm pitches the Ahwatukee site as part of a larger strategy to support cloud and AI workloads at scale, highlighting its ability to deliver large blocks of capacity paired with energy solutions. Corporate materials state that design and engineering work for the Phoenix campus is complete, with permitting still in progress as the company lines up the next phases. Menlo Digital details the broader pipeline and recent projects.
Industry coverage pegs the Ahwatukee campus at roughly 257 megawatts of potential IT capacity and more than 1 million square feet spread over five buildings, all backed by an on-site substation sized for that kind of power draw. Those reports say Menlo is targeting late 2026 for delivery of the powered shells, with tenant-ready data halls coming online in early 2027, although no specific operators or end users have been named yet. DataCenterDynamics has laid out the technical specs and projected timeline.
Neighbors push back over water and noise
Not everyone in Ahwatukee is thrilled about trading office workers for racks of servers. At a recent village planning meeting, residents told local television crews they were surprised to see the project moving forward and raised alarms about round-the-clock noise, added light in the neighborhood and the amount of water the facility might need so close to homes. In response, the developer said it had participated in earlier public hearings when the application first won approval, and that its current design relies on air-cooled systems to limit water consumption while keeping local energy rates unaffected, according to Arizona's Family.
What this means for Phoenix's data boom
The Ahwatukee project slots into a metro Phoenix data center rush that industry trackers say is turning the region into one of the country's fastest-growing server hubs. Tight vacancy and heavy pre-leasing have pushed developers to chase new sites and power sources, and this latest campus is another sign that south Phoenix is firmly on that map. Market reports and local coverage indicate that the wave of projects is reshaping conversations about utility capacity, land use and workforce needs across the valley. Those low vacancy and soaring leasing numbers have become a recurring theme for analysts watching the area.
Next steps and the approval timeline
The Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee signed off on parts of Menlo's application in January 2024, but the project is not fully greenlit yet. It still needs final city approvals, utility agreements and key permits before any major construction starts. Planning documents indicate Menlo intends to move ahead with substation work and shell construction later this year if it clears those remaining hurdles. AZBEX has outlined the permitting steps and related planning filings.
